Jan 21, 2022 By: yunews
Click on the image for the flipbook or to download a PDFFrom the President
Dear Friends: Stories are essential to how we contextualize our lives. A recent conversation I had with one of our excellent rabbinic teachers in our high schools reminded me of this point. He shared with me that the advice he gives to his students when they are figuring out which yeshiva to attend in Israel is to visit the YU batei midrash [houses of study] and find the college students who best represent who they would like to be like in five years. Ask them where they attended yeshiva in Israel and choose accordingly. So much of our lives are modeled on the success we see in others. That is why it is so essential to highlight those who model our values as well as incorporate opportunities into our educational program to meet people who have excelled in their sphere of interest. In this View from YU, we meet YU alumni and friends who model success in our essential areas of focus and invest their time to help educate our students, the leaders of tomorrow. Values and Leadership New York City is embarking on a new era with the inauguration of Mayor Eric Adams, and our alumni are at the center helping move NYC forward. Menashe Shapiro ’97YC, ’00C and Fred Kreizman ’00SB will serve as deputy chief of staff and commissioner of the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, respectively. Science and Technology Alumnae Chemda Wiener and Eliana Feifel were selected as the first two recipients of the Innovation STEM Scholarship, which supports YU students who plan on studying STEM in select Israeli graduate programs. We continue to strengthen the YU-Israel Superhighway creating direct pipelines to Israel for our students, and Chemda and Eliana are great examples of our stellar students who are furthering their education in Israel. Great Jobs and Impactful Careers The Shevet Glaubach Center for Career Strategy and Professional Development is advancing its exceptional work counseling students on their career paths with the introduction of the Industry Advisory Council, which provides strategic support for a range of industries including finance, health, law, media, biotech and rabbinical studies. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Three successful entrepreneurs—Riki Franco (founder and CEO, Prime 6), Frances Zelazny (co-founder and CEO, Anonybit) and Tamar Shenkar (“Gen-Z entrepreneur”)—joined the YU Innovation Lab to share practical advice about the risks and rewards of striking out on one’s own in the world of business. I heard that Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks once remarked that the Jewish tradition places so much importance on narrative that we are not just a people with a story but a story with a people. I hope you find these stories meaningful. If you have any stories you would like to share for future editions of VFYU that reflect our four strategic areas of interest, please send to doron.stern@yu.edu Warm regards, Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman President, Yeshiva UniversityValues and Leadership
Torat Chesed in Action
On Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, a deadly fire ripped through 333 E. 181st St. in the Bronx, killing 17. Our YU community immediately responded by pulling together relief items for the victims, working with the office of New York City Councilmember Oswald Feliz, whose district covers where the fire took place. A special shout-out to Kimberly Moore, director of the Care Café at Wurzweiler, who, with her interns and volunteers, organized the donations flooding into the office of Councilmember Feliz for delivery to the children and families in need. Thanks also to Herschel Hartz and the Office of Student Life, which marshaled 50 pounds of food, 1,200 water bottles and student volunteers, and to Jon Greenfield, director of the Office of Government Relations. Read more»
Yeshiva University volunteers, standing outside the district office of NYC Councilmembers Oswald Feliz, bring support and hope to the victims of the Bronx fire.YU Alumni with Mayor Eric Adams
Menashe Shapiro ’97YC, ’00C and Fred Kreizman ’00SB will be serving in the administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams as deputy chief of staff and commissioner of the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, respectively.New Fellowship in Jewish Education
The Azrieli Graduate School recruited applicants for a pioneering Fellowship in Jewish Education that introduces educators to innovators in the field, funded by the Mayberg Foundation. Read more»Science and Technology
Innovation STEM Scholarship
Chemda Wiener ’21S and Eliana Feifel ’21S, both enrolled at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, are the first two recipients of the Innovation STEM Scholarship, awarded to students admitted into select Israeli graduate programs. Read more»Annual Nobel Prize Nanosecond Party
Six YU faculty gave six-minute talks on each of this year’s six Nobel Prize recipients: Dr. Sumanta Goswami (Medicine), Dr. Gabriel Cwilich (Physics), Dr. Jianfeng Jiang (Chemistry), Prof. David Puretz (Literature), Dr. Maria Zaitseva (Peace) and Dr. James Kahn (Economics). Read more»Climate Change and Real Estate
Atreish Ramlakhan, a master’s candidate in the artificial intelligence program at the Katz School, analyzed data that con firmed how climate change threatens the value of S&P Global’s real estate investments along the East Coast. Read more»Great Jobs and Impactful Careers
Alternate Careers in Finance
The Shevet Glaubach Center for Career Strategy and Professional Development (SGC) hosted its annual panel discussion “What is Wall Street…other than investment banking?” about alternate careers in finance, with Adam Lauer ’07SB, principal at Apollo Global Management, as keynote speaker. American Express, Jefferies, Genpact and Knickerbocker Financial Group offered advice and direction. Read more»SGC Industry Advisory Council
The SGC hosted the first two meetings of its Industry Advisory Council (IAC) during the fall 2021 semester. Comprised of a diverse group of successful alumni, friends of Yeshiva University, faculty and administration, the IAC provides strategic support for SGC’s mission in guiding the next generation of the YU community. Members come from a range of industries including finance, health, management consulting, law, marketing, media, biotech and accounting as well as rabbinical studies. Read more»Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Mark Cuban Chats with Sy Syms Students
Prof. Laizer Kornwasser arranged for students in his Kukin Entrepreneurial Leadership Honors Course to have a Q&A with the world-renowned entrepreneur Mark Cuban. Over the course of the 45-minute session, Cuban explored a range of topics, including artificial intelligence, crypto currency, blockchain and NFTs, encouraging his audience to come up to speed on these recent technologies as they “are ripping apart traditional businesses.” He went on to stress the central importance of curiosity, intellectual agility and sweat equity in starting one’s own business. “Sweat equity is always the best equity.” Read more»Powerful Lessons from Entrepreneurs
Three successful entrepreneurs provided 62 undergraduate men and women (representing 18 majors) with practical advice about the risks and rewards of striking out on one’s own in the world of business in a panel discussion hosted by the YU Innovation Lab. Riki Franco (founder and CEO, Prime 6), Frances Zelazny (co-founder and CEO, Anonybit) and Tamar Shenkar (described as a “Gen-Z entrepreneur”) gave their insider view of how to turn entrepreneurial dreams into profitable realities, offering techniques and strategies to help one avoid the hazards and amplify the opportunities.Faculty
Liesl Schwabe’s essay “Breathing with Both Lungs” was awarded the Donald Murray Prize for 2020. Schwabe is director of the writing program at Yeshiva College and a lecturer in English. Read more» Dr. Richard Zweig and Dr. Kailey Roberts, both professors at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, are co-principal investigators on a grant funded by the NYFE to create eldercare training modules. Read more» Andrea Kupfer Schneider has been appointed Professor of Law and Director of the Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution at Cardozo Law School, effective June 2022. Prof. Schneider is currently the director of the nationally ranked ADR program at Marquette University Law School. Read more»Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
The Fish Center co-led a professional development workshop for Holocaust educators with The Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center and the Westchester Lower Hudson Council for the Social Studies. Read more»YU Museum Receives NEH Grant
Paul Glassman, director of scholarly and cultural resources, announced that the YU Museum has received a planning grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the exhibition Shaping Time: The Art and Culture of the Jewish Calendar. Read more»Student Life
A Return to the Stage
The Stern College Dramatics Society presented Radium Girls for four well-attended performances at the Schottenstein Theater on the Wilf campus. Read more»Puppy Therapy
Students on the Wilf and Beren campuses had the chance to let go of the end-ofsemester stress of classes and exams by spending some quality time with puppies. Read more»
